Dinosaur National Monument celebrates 100 years

​Park Rangers Sonya Popelka and Joseph Giddens show off the monument’s centennial banner on the Fossil Wall.courtesy

Dinosaur National Monument will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend with a variety of scheduled events and free entry to facilities.

Events include receptions, extended hours at exhibits, presentations from park paleontologists, car caravan tours, guided hikes, and a reunion for staff and volunteers.

According to a news release from the National Park Service, "President Woodrow Wilson first set aside 80-acres of fossil-rich land in Northeast Utah on Oct. 4, 1915, as Dinosaur National Monument to protect ‘an extraordinary deposit of Dinosaurian and other gigantic reptilian remains of the Jurassic period.’ A second proclamation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 recognized the surrounding area’s spectacular scenery, geology, ecology and rich cultural history and expanded Dinosaur National Monument from 80 acres to over 210,000 acres, spanning the Utah-Colorado border."

For more information, call 435-781-7700, visit http://www.nps.gov/dinohttp://www.nps.gov/dino or follow DinosaurNPS on social media to learn more about visiting Dinosaur National Monument and joining the Dinosaur Centennial celebration. or follow DinosaurNPS on social media to learn more about visiting Dinosaur National Monument and joining the Dinosaur Centennial celebration.http://www.nps.gov/dino or follow DinosaurNPS on social media to learn more about visiting Dinosaur National Monument and joining the Dinosaur Centennial celebration.